On-street parking meter system supporting multiple payment tools and signal transmission method thereof

Abstract

In an on-street parking meter system supporting multiple payment tools and signal transmission method thereof, parking meters spaced along streets are divided into multiple groups, each of which includes a main parking meter and multiple secondary parking meters, all of which are equipped with an all-in-one contactless card reader unit compatible with prepaid card, Visa Wave card and MasterCard PayPass card, and a remotely controllable pay-by-phone unit allowing a user to pay by phone. In each group, the main parking meter is provided with both long-range and short-range wireless communication units for bidirectional communication with a back-end parking charge management system and the secondary parking meters, respectively; while the secondary parking meters each are provided with only a short-ranged wireless communication unit for bidirectional communication with the main parking meter. Therefore, the parking meters have small size and reduced power consumption to enable reduced labor cost for replacing batteries thereof.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to an on-street parking meter system supporting multiple payment tools and signal transmission method thereof; and more particularly to an on-street parking meter system supporting multiple payment tools and signal transmission method thereof that utilizes both long-range and short-range wireless communication networks to enable bidirectional data transmission between parking meters and a back-end parking charge management system at reduced power consumption and provides an all-in-one contactless IC card reader unit on each of the parking meters thereof to enable convenient payment of parking fees without increasing the frequency of battery replacements.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]With the quick development in the transport facilities in the modern society, more and more people own cars, and it has become an important issue in most big cities to work out an effective plan for providing and managing public parking places ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]A primary objective of the present invention is to provide an on-street parking meter system and signal transmission method thereof that utilizes both long-range and short-range wireless communication networks to enable bidirectional data transmission between parking meters in the system with a back-end parking charge management system, so as to reduce the power consumption of the parking meters and save labor cost for replacing batteries of the parking meters.

[0010]Another objective of the present invention is to provide an on-street parking meter system and signal transmission method thereof that supports multiple payment tools by providing an all-in-one contactless IC card reader unit and a remotely controllable pay-by-phone unit on each of the parking meters thereof without increasing an overall size of the parking meters, and allows users to conveniently pay the parking fee by a prepaid card, a Visa Wave card, a MasterCard PayPass card, or a cell phone.

[0011]A further objective of the present invention is to provide an on-street parking meter system and signal transmission method thereof that provides an infrared or a laser beam detector on each of the parking meters thereof to enable smart and correct detection of whether a parking space is occupied by a car, as well as timely detection and accordingly quick removal of any abnormal condition in the parking meters.

[0012]To achieve the above and other objects, the on-street parking meter system supporting multiple payment tools and signal transmission method thereof according to the present inventio

Problems solved by technology

With the quick development in the transport facilities in the modern society, more and more people own cars, and it has become an important issue in most big cities to work out an effective plan for providing and managing public parking places in limited urban space.

(1) The conventional parking meters are battery-powered, and the installation of the GPRS, GSM or trunking radio system in the conventional parking meters for transmitting different messages, such as transaction data or update programs, would consume more battery power. Therefore, more batteries with higher capacity are required for the parking meters. However, since the parking meters are located on streets, they usually have a small size and are therefore not suitable for receiving too many batteries therein.

(2) While the conventional coin-operated on-street parking meters are gradually replaced by card-operated parking meters due to many problems in use, such as the problems of coins collecting, stuck machines and counterfeit coins, the user paying by card has to wait at the parking meter until the latter is connected to a credit card transaction center to obtain an authorization code. Thus, a lot of time is consumed and the public telecommunication resource is occupied. Moreover, the currently available credit card reader occupies a relatively large space and therefore could not be easily installed in the small enclosure of the on-street parking meters. Besides, the currently available prepaid car

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